EU rules against German regulator

The European Court of Justice has ruled that a regulator cannot force an operator to levy unjustified charges on competitors using its network, reports Reuters. The decision means that Vodafone’s Arcor unit and two other German telcos should not have been forced by regulator Bundesnetzagentur to pay Deutsche Telekom (DT) an additional charge on top of an existing fee for accessing DT’s network. The European Commission said the ruling was good news for competition in the EU’s telecoms markets. ‘The judgment has confirmed that competitors can rely directly on the EU telecoms rules against decisions of national regulators which are in conflict with EU law,’ a Commission spokesperson said.